


A Spectacular Display of…Gray??

by myglassesaredirty



Series: It Had to be You [3]
Category: Psych
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Color Blindness, F/M, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 08:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17301476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myglassesaredirty/pseuds/myglassesaredirty
Summary: People can see approximately 7 million colors, but there is a slight catch to this: no person can see their soulmate's favorite color. That is, they can't see their soulmate's favorite color until they share their first kiss with their soulmate. There is also a black mark where someone's soulmate will touch them for the first time.Madeleine Spencer has had a few boyfriends, but part of her hair remains black, and she still can't see the color red. Henry Spencer has never seen the color green, which has resulted in lost games and several break-ups.They both randomly decide to go to New York City on New Year's Eve. They don't expect to run into each other.





	A Spectacular Display of…Gray??

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Howlingdawn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howlingdawn/gifts).



> There are three soulmate au's in this: 1) can't see your soulmate's favorite color, 2) can see new color after the first kiss, and 3) a black marker where your soulmate touches you for the first time.

Every day, she wonders what the color red really looks like. Sometimes, she thinks she catches glimpses of it on flowers that she passes on her daily walks to class, or trickling from her finger after she accidentally nicks her finger while chopping vegetables for her salad. Many friends tell her that tomatoes have this deep, rich, vibrant red, but all she sees is gray or green. Christmas often looks bleak to her, so she changes the colors from green and red to green and pink and gold.

 

Her best friend describes the color red as passion. Not in the same way she bends over her psychology textbooks at 3 in the morning, on her second day without sleep, but passion that would move mountains and drown oceans. She describes it as love, as spending time with the person your heart is truly meant to be with. She described it once as strength. Not necessarily the same strength that could lift cars, but a steely strength she possessed when her doctor told her that she might never have children of her own. Finally, she describes it as determination. The same way she finds a way past a person’s façade and helps them.

 

It gives her a clearer understanding of what red  _ is, _ but she still can’t visualize the color. Her best friend eventually just gave up and described it as really, really dark pink.

 

Maddy sighs, splits her hair into three parts, and starts braiding her hair to the left side of her neck. Though most of her hair is golden, she has a patch of black hair that brushes against the base of her skull and the nape of her neck. Honestly, she loathes it because it makes her look like a badger. Her ex-boyfriend used to think it was cute.

 

There’s a knock at Maddy’s door. “Yeah?” Maddy calls to the wood.

 

Her roommate, Karen Vick, bursts open the door and shakes two slips of paper at her. “Guess what guess what guess what guess –”

 

Maddy’s eyes widen, and she screams internally for a second before she calmly says, “What?”

 

Karen takes a deep breath, walks over to Maddy’s desk, pulls out her rolly chair, and sits down. “I have plane tickets to New York City.”

 

Maddy furrows her eyebrows and glances around the room, wondering why in the world this was such big news for Karen to burst into her room. “Okay?”

 

Karen rolls her eyes and tosses one of the tickets to Maddy. The air catches the paper, and it drifts in the air, slowly falling to the ground. Maddy just watches it fall. “You’re coming with me to New York City.”

 

Maddy purses her lips and squints at Karen. She tugs on her hair, pulling it tightly over the middle part. “I’m still confused.”

 

Karen groans. “Maddy, we’re going to New York City to be there – in Times Square – on New Year’s Eve!”

 

Maddy sits up straight and searches Karen’s eyes. “You’re serious?”

 

Karen nods solemnly. “Cross my heart.”

 

Maddy squeals, quickly puts in her hair tie, and jumps up, running to her closet to grab her suitcase. “Come on! You’re helping me pack right now!”

 

**

 

Henry Spencer has been saddled with some of the worst luck in the history of the world. He can’t see the color green.

 

Now, that might not be so bad, some might think. Green is a cool color (quite literally), but it’s not necessarily the  _ best _ color. As it stands, Henry’s favorite color is red, so why should he care that he doesn’t see green all that often?

 

Here’s why, in chronological order:

  1. When he was younger, his favorite holiday _used_ to be Christmas, but he couldn’t see any of the green, and it always looked so gray to him that it just. Became a dreary holiday for him.
  2. Every single Christmas movie in the history of the world contains large amounts of green, and _The Grinch_ (Jim Carrey’s version, that is) _would_ be his favorite Christmas movie, but the main character is literally green and he just doesn’t know what green looks like.
  3. He used to play all sorts of sports in high school. In fact, he was the star quarterback, but there were two minor wrinkles: a) football turf is very, very green (or so he’s heard) and b) his high school’s colors were green and white. Once, however, he was playing basketball and passed to the wrong team because both sides looked like they were wearing gray jerseys.
  4. He thought his first girlfriend’s eyes were gray, but she broke up with him when he got the color of her eyes wrong (it’s not _his_ fault that her eyes are green and he still can’t see the freaking color).
  5. He loves the outdoors, but the vast majority of the outdoors is green.



 

There’s more, but that’s the main gist of it. Sometimes, he thinks he catches glimpses of green here and there, during the springtime, but it’s always a trick of his imagination. Most of the world is gray to him. He knows nothing else.

 

Henry stares at his criminology notes, his eyes locked onto the same sentence. Of course.  _ Of freaking course _ green would be involved in this somehow. He sighs heavily, slams his notebook shut, and scrubs his hands over his face.

 

Lou – Henry’s roommate – looks up from his golf magazine and surveys the back of Henry’s head. “You look like you need a drink,” he says.

 

Henry groans and shakes his head. “I need a vacation is what I need.” He rubs his face, sniffs, and stares at the cover of his notebook. He tilts his head in consideration and purses his lips. “What do you say we just buy plane tickets?”

 

Lou hums. “Where to?”

 

“New York City. New Year’s Eve.”

 

Lou snorts. “Good luck trying to find  _ those.” _

 

Henry reaches for his computer and frantically types into the search bar. “Listen, if I read one more sentence about criminology, I will actually lose my mind. You want to come with?”

 

Lou shakes his head. “Nah, I’m gonna stay here with Barb. Have a romantic weekend.”

 

Henry rolls his eyes. “Well,  _ I’m _ going. I’ll tell you what the weather’s like over on the east coast.”

 

“Oh, Henry?”

 

“Yeah, bud?”

 

“You are going to want to dress very, very warm.”

 

**

 

At six o’clock in the evening, Karen grabs Maddy’s wrist, leads her into a deli, and demands that she order a sandwich so that they can get to Times Square in time to get good spots. Maddy thinks it’s a bit ridiculous, but she orders a turkey and lettuce sandwich. The woman behind the counter gets to making it, and Maddy digs in her purse for some money while Karen orders her own sandwich. Karen presses twenty dollars into the cashier’s hand, grabs both wrapped sandwiches, and leads Maddy out of the deli before Maddy can get her money.

 

“Here,” Karen says, pressing Maddy’s sandwich into her hands. “Come on, I don’t want to be late.”

 

Maddy rolls her eyes and jogs after Karen. “The new year isn’t for another six hours!”

 

Karen glances over her shoulder and rolls her eyes. “Oh, you sweet summer child,” she says, stopping to grab Maddy’s wrist again and drag her toward Times Square at a much faster pace. “You’ve never been here on New Year’s Eve, have you?”

 

Maddy laughs and shakes her head. “I’ve never even been to New York City before.”

 

Karen hums and nods her head. “I can tell. This is probably  _ the _ most popular place in the country on New Year’s Eve. As it stands, we’re really pushing it for good spots. Now hurry  _ up.” _

 

**

 

Henry doesn’t know why he listened to the advice of a stranger, but at 5:30, he leaves his hotel and weaves through throngs of people on his way to Times Square. Honestly, he thinks the stranger was probably wrong – after all, he has over six hours until the new year, and, even with the massive population that is New York City, six hours seems excessive.

 

Once he reaches Times Square, however, he realizes that the stranger was 100% right.

 

Spots are already starting to fill up, and Henry grimaces and follows these two young ladies. One clearly has done this before and leads her friend up to the front, and Henry figures he can’t go wrong by following an expert. The inexperienced friend glances over her shoulder and smiles at Henry.

 

Her smile is bright and showers him with a warmth that even the pale excuse for a sun can’t give. Her blue eyes (Henry can tell what color  _ her _ eyes are, thank ye very much) sparkle, and she pulls her coat tighter around her body. “Sorry,” she mouths at him.

 

Henry shakes his head and waves his hand in dismissal. The experienced friend weaves her way to one of the metal barriers and stops, looking around. “This should do.” She nudges her friend with her shoulder. “Now eat your sandwich.”

 

“But I’m not hungryyyy,” the other girl whines.

 

“You’re going to regret that in a few hours, when that thing is warm and gross and probably unhealthy. Just eat it.”

 

The girl rolls her eyes, unwraps her sandwich, and takes an angry bite out of it.

 

Henry shakes his head, laughs silently to himself, and introduces himself to the bachelor on his right.

 

**

 

Maddy tucks her chin into her coat and shivers. “It’s so freaking cold,” she says through chattering teeth. She nudges Karen. “How cold is it?”

 

Karen glares at her, tugs off her right glove, and unlocks her phone. “The weather app says it’s 2 degrees outside.”

 

“And what does it feel like?”

 

Karen scrolls once and squints at the screen. “Feels like negative six.”

 

Maddy rubs her gloved hands together and hops a little bit. “This sucks.”

 

“Come on, you get to cross something off your bucket list because of me. You should be thanking me.”

 

Maddy growls a little. “Well, I was expecting to cross this off when I had a boyfriend or a husband, maybe. At least then I’d have someone to keep me warm.”

 

Karen spreads her arms wide and gestures for Maddy to come closer. “I’ll keep you warm.”

 

“Shut up. I’m mad at you right now.” Maddy huffs, and a puff of white smoke comes from her mouth. Around her, people jostle to get closer, and Maddy tries to avoid running into the guy who walked in behind them. “I haven’t even sat down for nearly five hours now, and I’m pretty sure I have frostbite somewhere. I literally can’t feel any part of my body.”

 

Maddy glances to her right and looks the man up and down. He’s tall and slender, confident in his own body. The hair that peeks out from beneath his hat is dirty blonde, and his body jerks with the cold.

 

“You,” she says, nodding to the tall, handsome stranger. “You must be from someplace warm.”

 

The man nods and tucks his chin into his scarf. “Santa Barbara, actually. I have never been this cold in my  _ life.” _

 

Karen furrows her brow and leans across Maddy. “You’ve never been to any ski slopes or anything?”

 

The man shrugs. “I mean, I  _ have, _ but they were never this cold, and I usually went during spring break with some friends. It was usually warm enough that we only had to wear a sweater, not any actual ski gear.”

 

Karen whistles lowly. “You are so screwed.”

 

The man smiles at her. “I think I’m going to need to stop by one of the hospitals after this, just to make sure that I can keep all of my digits.” He wags his fingers at both Karen and Maddy. “I’m Henry, by the way.”

 

Karen reaches out and shakes his hand. “I’m Karen Vick.” She hooks her thumb at Maddy. “This is Maddy Baker.”

 

Henry waves at Maddy. “Nice to meet you both.” He blows hot air into his gloves and curls his hands into fists. “How close is it to midnight?”

 

Maddy pushes her sleeve up and glances at her watch. “Another fifteen minutes.”

 

Henry groans and tucks his chin into his scarf. “This sucks.”

 

“We’re almost there,” Karen says, rolling her eyes. “You two are wimps.” She nudges Maddy with her shoulder. “After the ball drops, we can try and leave.”

 

Maddy blows hot air into her gloves. “You know, by trying to get us good spots to this thing, you sentenced us to a sea of people to wade through in order to get out.”

 

“At least you’ll be warm then.”

 

**

 

His heart pounds in his chest the closer it gets to midnight. Every few seconds, he glances over at Maddy, and he wonders what it would be like to kiss her, to cup her head with his hand and dip her in a spectacular display of affection.

 

If he wants a New Year’s kiss, his choices are extremely limited. There are a few couples behind him, a single man to his right who’s chatting up another guy, Karen, and Maddy. Karen looks like she’s flirting with someone on her left, so that just leaves him with Maddy.

 

Two minutes until midnight.

 

Henry takes a shaky breath, rubs his hands together, and tucks his hands back into his pockets.

 

He can tell there’s a lot of green here. There’s no way on God’s green earth (yes, he realizes the irony of that phrase) that there is  _ this much _ gray in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. New York is too colorful for that.

 

Ninety seconds.

 

Maybe in the new year, he’ll finally see the color green. Maybe things will be different.

 

One minute.

 

**

 

Maddy bounces on the balls of her feet as the clock winds down. Her hands shake, but she doesn’t know if it’s from the cold or the nervousness about her New Year’s kiss.

 

With thirty seconds left until the new year, the crowd starts chanting the countdown. Maddy gulps and glances at Henry, who looks equally as nervous as she feels.

 

She pulls her coat tightly around her body.

 

“TEN.”

 

She blinks in confusion, immediately realizing that there are mere seconds left until the old year has passed away. She manages to join in on the countdown in time. “Four!” she shouts. “Three! Two! One!”

 

A cheer erupts from the crowd of people, and it deafens her ears. She turns to Henry, her smile stretching across her face. “Happy New Year!” she shouts at him.

 

He spreads his arms and grins at her. “Happy New Year!” He hesitates for a second, licks his lips, then cups the back of her head and presses his lips to hers.

 

Maddy doesn’t quite know how to react immediately, but she grips his shoulder as he dips her slightly. His lips are cold, much like hers, but they’re soft, and she can just barely taste coffee on his lips.

 

When he pulls away, straightening her, it takes Madeleine a moment to open her eyes, but when she does, a new color shimmers all around her. Her eyes widen, and she looks all around her, grabbing Henry’s scarf and shaking it a little. “Is this red?” she shouts at him.

 

Henry furrows his brow and looks down at his scarf. “Yeah, wh–” His eyes grow wide, and he looks up slowly. “You couldn’t see the color red before?”

 

Maddy shakes her head and laughs. “No!” She leans into him. “But I can now! It’s beautiful! Magnificent!” She stands on her tiptoes and kisses Henry again. “Your nose is red! I didn’t know a person’s nose  _ could _ be red!”

 

Henry squeezes her hand and looks all around him. “And–” he breathes in shallowly, his eyes welling up with tears. “Green. It’s such an amazing color.” He gestures all around him. “There’s so much green! What have I been missing out on?”

 

Maddy grins and shifts so that her hat reflects the light, and Henry gasps, pressing his hand to his mouth. “Your hat,” he says, “it’s–”

 

Maddy laughs again. “Yep!”

 

Henry wraps his arms around Maddy, picks her up, and spins her around in the very limited space he’s been given by the mass of people. “This is– I love this!”

 

Maddy tucks her face into the crook of Henry’s neck and grins. Her breath warms the base of Henry’s hairline, and the redness on his neck fades a little bit. When he sets her down, he searches her eyes and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

 

“Madeleine Baker,” he says, bowing slightly, “would you like to  _ officially _ go on a date with me?”

 

Maddy nods emphatically and leans into Henry’s arms. “I would love to.”

 

Someone taps her shoulder, and Maddy glances at Karen. Karen runs her fingers through Maddy’s hair, then reaches up and takes off Maddy’s hat, despite Maddy’s protests. “Your hair,” Karen says, still running her fingers through Maddy’s hair. “It’s all blonde.”

 

Maddy furrows her brow and touches the back of her head. “No more black?”

 

“No more black.”

 

Henry looks at the two confusedly, and then realization dawns on him. He immediately shrugs off his coat and pulls the collar of his shirt down enough to reveal flesh-colored skin. “My shoulder used to be black,” he murmurs.

 

Karen tosses her head back and laughs. “When you two get married, I demand to be your maid of honor, Maddy.”

 

Maddy nods slowly, her eyes locked onto Henry’s. White smoke puffs from her mouth. “Yeah,” she says slowly. “Yeah, we’ll do that.”

 

Henry grins and pulls his coat back on. “One more kiss for the new year?”

 

Maddy rolls her eyes, grabs his coat in both of her hands, and pulls him closer to her. “You already had two,” she says. She and Henry share the same air. “But another one wouldn’t hurt.”

 

Henry presses his hand to the small of Maddy’s back and pulls her closer to him. Maddy moves her hands from his coat to wrap around his neck as he kisses her again, fireworks exploding in the air above them.

**Author's Note:**

> Like it, love it, hate it? Leave a comment below or go to my tumblr, @ my-glasses-are-dirty, and tell me what you think!


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